Going home was a sad awakening

But perhaps the point that concerns him most about the future of his country is its unresolved issues of ethnicity and the consequences for his people, the Ibo. "There are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria," he explains. "The Hausa, the Yoruba, the Ibo. But the Ibo have been forgotten."

Destruction of native culture

Achebe is the author of five novels, some poetry, and several collections of essays. But he is most renowned for "Things Fall Apart," a novel that depicts with heartbreaking simplicity the destruction of native culture by the arrival of Europeans. The book has sold 8 million copies, been translated into 50 languages, and is frequently assigned reading in US high school and college classes.

There is today a certain sad irony to the plot of "Things Fall Apart." The novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, must pass some years in exile from his tribe. When he returns, he finds the old ways have been eroded and that he can no longer find his way without the old customs.

But for Achebe, the relationship with Western culture has always been more complex. He was raised in a family devoted to the Anglican religion and educated in English. While he has sometimes been criticized for the decision to write his novels in English rather than in Ibo - a language he sometimes employs for poetry - he says, "English is the language that was available to me."

He acknowledges, however, that some colleagues disagree with that decision. "I have two hands," he says. "They do different things. Some of my friends think you should cut off one hand out of loyalty to the other."

It has been 12 years since Achebe has produced a novel, and he won't say when another is likely to emerge. "My engagement with fiction is quite interesting, and I don't fully understand it," he says. The next novel "will come when it will come."

As for the future, Achebe has no doubts about the course he would like to follow. When the time is right, he says, "I would like to go back to my village." Although he has taught on the university level most of his life, both in Nigeria and abroad, it is not an academic career that Achebe is dreaming of today. "I would like to go back and retire," he says. "What I would most like would be to become an elder in my village."

What happened to our people?

"Perhaps I have been away too long," Okonkwo said, almost to himself. "But I can not understand these things you tell me. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?"

"Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?" asked Obierika.

"I have heard," said Okonkwo. "But I have also heard that Abame people were weak and foolish. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes? We would be cowards to compare ourselves with the men of Abame. Their fathers had never dared to stand before our ancestors. We must fight these men and drive them from the land."

"It is already too late," said Obierika sadly.

- From 'Things Fall Apart,' by Chinua Achebe

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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